Arrest of ‘harmless old ladies’ what outlawed Palestine Action wants – Clarke

Arresting “hundreds of harmless old ladies” for supporting Palestine Action is counter-productive and what the group banned under terror laws wants, former home secretary Ken Clarke has warned.

Speaking in Parliament, the Tory peer urged the use of discretion in dealing with protesters following the proscription of the organisation.

Labour former Northern Ireland secretary Lord Hain also criticised his own front bench, arguing that police should be tackling “real crime” rather than being “forced to frog-march” peaceful demonstrators to court.

Palestine Action was outlawed as a terrorist group in July after it claimed responsibility for vandalising two planes at RAF Brize Norton, causing £7 million of damage.

The home secretary at the time also highlighted attacks carried out at Thales defence factory in Glasgow in 2022, Instro Precision in Kent and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol in 2024.

The ban means that membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Defending the crackdown, Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint told peers: “Palestine Action has satisfied the tests in the Terrorism Act 2000 having conducted an escalating campaign involving intimidation and sustained criminal damage.

“Some of its members have been charged with serious and violent offences.

“In passing I would like to thank the police for their professionalism in policing recent protests.

“The House should note that there were 17 arrests for assaults on police officers at the demonstration on September 6. This is totally unacceptable.”

But while backing the proscription of Palestine Action, Lord Clarke of Nottingham said: “There’s always been discretion in this country not to prosecute in a case where there’s no public interest in arresting and prosecuting.

“Does the minister not accept that what is happening with the arrest of hundreds of harmless old ladies simply for holding a placard is exactly what the demonstrators want the police to do?

“They see it giving valuable positive publicity to their views on Gaza and the survival of the proscribed organisation.

“Could he discuss, at least with the police authorities whether it’s really in the public interest to carry on using these massive police resources for what is actually a counterproductive effect?”

Lord Hanson said: “The police do have discretion. It’s not for ministers to order arrests or to potentially bring forward charges. It is for the police at a local level to interpret the legislation that’s been passed overwhelmingly by the House of Commons and by this House, to proscribe the organisation.”

He added: “If people wish to protest about Palestine they can do so. They can march, they can protest, they can criticise Israel.”

Lord Hain, who previously worked with Lord Hanson at the Northern Ireland Office, said: “How exactly does the arrest on terrorism charges of over a thousand peacefully protesting retired magistrates, as well as vicars, priests, war veterans and descendants of Holocaust survivors, help combat real terrorists like Hamas, al Qaeda, Islamic State and, in the past, the IRA, who deliberately targeted and murdered innocent bystanders?

“Shouldn’t our hard-pressed police be prioritising real crime like shoplifting, burglaries and anti-social behaviour instead of being forced to frog-march normally law-abiding middle Britain citizens into further clogging up our courts?”

Lord Hanson said: “If he received a report from the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre saying that Palestine action had met a threshold for terrorist activity, I doubt very much whether he would have not signed that order the home secretary has done.

“He’d have done that because Palestine action have already had people convicted of not just criminal damage, but also of intimidation and physical threats.”

There were also cases currently before the courts, he said.

Lord Hanson added: “People, potentially, I would say, are sometimes mistaken in their conflation of support for Palestine and support for Palestine Action and that’s where the dividing line should be.”